The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-06-15
ST. STEPHEN.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE'S DISCOURSE
AT THE TABERNACLE.

ing at Christ-Stoned-HisD Dying Prayer.
Asleep
BROOKLYN, June 12,-This morning at the
tabernacle the Rev. 7. DE Witt Talmage, d,
D., expounded appropriate passages of script
ure, after which the congregation sang the
favorite hymn "1here is rest for the weary"
The reverend doctors text was Acts vii, $500:
behold, ! see the heavens opened, and the Son
OF Man standing on the right hand Of God.
Then they cried out with a loud voice and
stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one
accord, and cast him out of the city, and
stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their
clothes a ia young mans feet whose name was
Saul And they stoned Stephen calling upon
God, and saying, Lord Jesus receive my
spirit. And he knee1ed down, and cried with
loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. And when he had said this, be fell
asleep" The preacher said:
Stephen had been preaching rousing SER
mon, and the people could not stand 1t.
They resolved 10 do as men sometimes would
like to do in this day, if they dared, with
some plain preacher Of righteousness-kill
him. The only way to silence this man was
10 knock the breath out of him So they
rushed Stephen out Of the gates Of the city,
and with curse, and whoop, and below they
brought him TO the cliff, as was the custom
when they wanted 10 take away life by ston-
ing. Having brought him TO the edge of the
cliff they pushed him off. After he had fall
en- they came and looked down. and seeing
that he was not yet dead, they began TO drop
stones upon him, stone after stone, stone after
stone. Amid this horrible rain of missiles
Stephen chambers up on his knees and folds
his hands, while the blood drips from his
temples 10 his cheeks, from his cheeks to his
garments, from his garments to the ground;
and then, looking up, he makes two prayers,
one for himself and one for his murderers
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit:7 that was for
himself. Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge that was for his assaiants Then,
from pain and loss OF blood, he swooned
away and fell asleep.
want TO show you o-day five pictures
Stephen gazing into heaven, Stephen looking
at Christ, Stephen stoned, Stephen in his dy-
ing prayer, Stephen asleep.
First, look Mt Stephen gazing into heaven
Before you take n leap you want to know
where you are going to land. Before you
climb a ladder you want to know to what
point the ladder reaches. And it was right
that Stephen, within few moments of
heaven, should be gazing into it. We would
oil do well TO be found in the same posture
There is enough in heaven to keep us gazing.
A man Of large wealth may have statuary in
the hall, and paintings in the sitting room,
and works of art in all parts OF the house;
but he has the chief pictures in the art gall
lery, aud there, hour after hour, you walk
with catalogue and glass and ever increasing
admiration. Well, heaven is the gallery
where God has gathered the chief treasures
of his realm The whole universe is his
palace. In this lower room where we stop
there are many dornments-tessellated floor
of amethyst and Blossom, and on the winding
cloud stairs are stretched out canvas on which
commingle azure, and purple and saffron, and
gold. But heaven is the gallery in which the
chief glories are gathered. There are the
brightest robes. There are the richest crowns
There are tho highest exhilarations. John
says of 1t: "The kings Of the earth shall
bring their honor and glory into itn
And l see the procession forming; and in
the line come all empires, and the stars spring
up into an arch for the hosts to march under
They keep step to the sound of earthquake
and the pitch of avalanche from the noun
tains, and the flag they bear is the flame of a
consuming world, and all heaven rms out
with harps and trumpets and myriad voiced
reclamation Of angelic dominion to welcome
them in, and so the kings of the earth bring
their honor and glory into it. Do you won
der that good people often stand like Stephen,
lnlo w . ulNe a great
friends there. There is not man in this
house to-day so isolated in life but re is
some one in heaven with whom he once shook
hands. As man gets older the number of
his celestial acquaintance very rapidly
mutiplies We have not had one glimpse of
them since the night we kissed them goodby
and they went away; but still we stand
gazing at heaven. As when some of our
friends go across the sea we stand ON the
dock or on the steamtug and watch them,
and after awhile the hulk Of the vessel dis
appears, and then there is only patch of
sail on the sky, and soon she is gone, and they
are all out OF sight, and yet we stand looking
in the same direction; so when our friends go
away from into the future world we keep
looking down through the Narrows, and gaz-
ing and gazing. as though we expected that
they would come out and stand ON some
evening cloud and give us one glimpse OF
their blissful and TRANSPORTED faces While
you long to join their companionshp, and
the years and the days 60 with such tedium
that they break your heart, and the viper of
pain and sorrow and bereavement keeps
gnawing at your vitals, you still stand, like
Stephen, gazing into heaven. You wonder If
they have changed since you saw them last
You wonder if they would recognize your
face now, so changed has it been with trouble
You wonder il, amid tho myriad delights
they have, they care as much for you as they
used to when they gave you helping hand
and put their shoulder under your burdens.
You wonder IL they look any older; and
sometimes, in the eveningtide, when ths
house is all quiet you wonder if you should
call them by their first name il they would
not answer, and perhaps sometimes you dc
make the experiment, and when no one but
God and yourself are there you distinctly
call their names, and listen and wait, and sit
gazing into heaven.
Pass on now and see Stephen looking upon
Christ. My text says he saw the Son of man
at the right hand of God. Just how Christ
looked in this world, just how he looks in
heaven, we cannot say. A writer in the time
of Christ says, describing the Saviour's per-
sonal appearance, that he had blue eyes and
light complexion, and very graceful struc
ture; but / suppose it was all guess work.
The painters of the different ages have tried
to imagine the features of Christ, and put
them upon canvas; but we viii have to wait
until with our own eyes we see him and with
our own ears we can hear him. And YET
there is a way of seeing and hearing him
now. / have to tell you that unless you SCI
and hear Christ ON earth, you will never SET
and hear him in heaven. Lookl There be
Is. Behold the Lamb of God. Can you moi
see hint Then pray to God to take the
scales Off your eyes. Look that way--try tS
look that way. His voice comes down tx
you this day-comes down 10 the blindest, t.
the deafest soul, saying: Look unto me, al
We ends of the-earth, and be We saved, for
am God and there is none elsen Proclama
ton OF universal emancipation for all slaves
Proclamation of universal amnesty for al
rebels. Ahasuerus gathered the Babylonisl
mobiles to his table; George entertained the
lords of England at banquet; Napoleon III
welcomed the car Of Russia and the sultan
of Turkey to his feast; the emperor of Ger
niapy was glad to have our minister, George
Bancroft, sitdown with him at his table; but
tell me, We who know most of the worlds his
tory, what other king ever asked the aban-
doned, and the forlorn, and the wretched, and
the outcast to come and sit down beside himl
Oh, wonderful invitationl You can take it
to-day and stand mt the head of the darkest
alley In all this city and say: @Come, Clothes
for your rags. salve for your sores, throne
for your eternal reigningn A Christ that
talks like that, and acts like that, and pardons
like that--do you wonder that Stephen stood
looking at hint hope to spend eternity do
ing the same thing. must see him. must
look upon that face, once clouded with my sin,
but now radiant with my pardon. want to
touch that hand that knocked Off my
shecxles. WANT 20 hear that voice which
pronounced my deliverance. Behold him,
little children, for il you live to three score
years and ten you win see none SO fair. Be
hold him, We aged ones, for he only can shine
through the dimness of your failing eyesight
Behold him. earth; behold him, heayeni
What moment when all the nations of the
saved shall gather around Christi All faces
that way; an thrones that way, gazing on
Jesus.
His worth. IL all the nations knew,